Pantry walls

29 - 30 May 2014

Two days of woodwork, putting up the framework for the interior wall between the kitchen and the pantry, and starting on the lathing, which isn't shown here.  The dining table is in the pantry, to be our temporary eating area - this is because it can be insect-netted as a 'no fly zone'.  What luxury, a smooth and level floor, shelves to put things on, and no flies!

Next week we're going to get some work done on the poor neglected boat.  We can't leave it much later or we'll fry while we're doing it.  So the kitchen sink is put back another week.  Sigh!

I've been doing a bit of painting - I came across a photo on the internet of a 106 year old Armenian woman protecting her home and she was so grim and determined that I felt she should have some fresh growing things around her as a counterpoint to what her life must have been like.  It came out like this:

Terra firma

Thursday 29 May 2014

Time to treat the kitchen tiles, they've had about 9 days to dry out.  But decided to wait until the sun moved off the east face of the house, so I wouldn't be working in the heat, so I finished lathing the internal wall with the temporary door.  It's all done on the inside, but I didn't take the time to do all the outer laths, that can wait for another day. 

Then moved on to treating the tiles.  Dave took a moment out from limewashing to take a photo.  From Noon tomorrow we can walk around on the kitchen floor as well!  Sink, cooker, fridge, here you come!

And wrapped up by finishing the shelving (for now).  Enough room for some tins and cookbooks and other civilized accoutrements.  Just the dining table to clear of tools and scrub up and we'll be able to eat in here.

 

Pantry building and external limewash

26 - 28 May 2014

Finally able to walk on the pantry floor, but not the kitchen half, which still needs a few days before being treated.  So I decided to use the time by building in shelves.  I wanted to use as much waste wood as possible, because we are a bit overwhelmed by offcuts.  So my shelves aren't particularly pretty, but they should be strong enough.

 First off, a big platform under the stairs

 Then a lower shelf, with space for these drawers from the camper van

 and an aluminium self-closing, magnet-fixing fly-screen door, so we can get in and out but the chicken can't, and hopefully the cats won't rip their way in.  This is a temporary opening, as there will eventually be a wall here.

 Dave's first limewash mix.  He is using our soil as the earth pigment, but it requires trial and error to work out the proportions.  This is still a bit bright, but it is only the first of four coats.

Look how dark the limewash is when it is wet.  Surprising how much lighter it dries.

Boaty things

23-24 May 2014

By this time the pantry tiles had had about 10 days to set, so I risked tiptoeing onto them and painting on the magic formula - 'Surfapore R'.  It went on easy, and it recommended a second coat within 3 hours on extra porous surfaces, so we gave it two just to be sure. 

Then it needs 24 hours, so we decided to spend Saturday down at the boat, making a list of jobs to be done.  The plan is to get a week away and work on what needs doing while also getting a bit of use of the boat - some swimming and fishing too.  We thought the week beginning 2 June would be good.

As we left the boat we saw Pete and Naomi on the quay, so we parked up on this bench and had a few beers while watching Pete fix his outboard.  They leave for the UK in a couple of days, so this was very serendipitous.

Dungroutin'

19-20 May 2014

Sore knees, bad back, but the grouting finished by Tuesday 20th.  Now we leave the grout to set for a week, and then use the magic formula to protect the tiles.

This is the magic formula.  I did some research into protecting terracotta, and found an article in 'Period Homes' magazine or something like that.  It said that the old way of treating the tiles involved a lot of linseed oil followed by beeswax.  The beeswax has to be reapplied every year, and scraped off and replaced every three years.  Having just spent a month on my knees laying these tiles, this did not fill me with excitement.  However, the article continued, there is an alternative.  Modern nano-technology has created a treatment that in one application waterproofs the tiles while retaining their breathability.  Well!

So, further research and I found 'Tile Doctor Seal n Go' was the stuff to use in the UK.  I emailed, would they post to Greece?  No.  We reckoned we'd need about 5 litres.  On the off-chance I asked in the tile shop whether they could get it, and they said no, but they had this stuff available.  More internet research and it seems to be the same - waterproofing with breathability, specifically for terracotta.  Hallelujah.

Later that day, band practice happened again, and I got this photo of the chicken, for reasons unknown, deciding to tuck its head under its wing and get a sleep while loud music plays.  Not a sensible chicken.

Voting Day

Sunday 18 May 2014

A morning of boaty stuff, then we were off to the polling station.  We had been encouraged to register as voters in the local elections, so here we were, being feted by the party that had woken up to the numbers of expats who had a right to vote.

Here's Dave leaving the polling station at the local junior school.  I'd like to have got a shot of the room itself, but you never know what people might get touchy about having photo'd, so I didn't.  The voting process was exceptionally complicated - there is a ballot paper for each party with about 30 names on each one.  With five parties competing, it means they give you five long paper strips with a total of some 150 names.  You can't mix and match.  Pick a party, and then pick four municipal and two local councillors.  Don't use an X, only 'holy' crosses count: +.  Don't use black pen - it may not be allowed, only blue is safe, and if you mix colours they'll throw your ballot away.  Very stressful.

Apparently the police were called four times to the Nidri station to sort out fist fights between candidates.  Unfortunately no-one tried to bribe us, but we heard it was going on.  In some of the villages people were taking your paper off you if you didn't vote for the right party.  I studied all this in British social and economic history 'O' level, so it was intriguing actually to be involved.

External plaster completed

Friday 16 May 2014

Whee! Hurrah!  Wild celebrations!  The third and final coat of lime plaster done.  An incredible job by Dave.  I thought that was it, but he says, No, there's four coats of limewash to get on with now.  Oh dear ...

Band practice

15 May 2014

The band has expanded with Geoff becoming a more permanent member.  On occasion now, we have up to five musicians and all their equipment strewn around our living room/workshop.  No room to swing a cat.

Still grouting

10-14 May 2010

Turns out we walked on the tiles too soon.  A couple in the pantry moved and had to be relaid, but loads more in the kitchen were disturbed by traffic to and from the pantry grouting site.  Each one had to be lifted, the mortar underneath scraped out carefully, not too deep, not too shallow, while remaining level (an impossible task) then the space was filled with the grout mixture and the tile re-seated and grouted around.  I did each one as I came to it with the grout, otherwise there'd have been an added couple of weeks wait.

Using lime is challenging at times, but it is hopefully going to make a big difference to the moisture regulation in the house, so we put up with the lengthy waiting times.

I had just grouted these last five tiles in the pantry when some friends came round and we had an impromptu barbecue, and I decided not to wipe off the grout that evening.  The next day, when I sliced off the overspill, I found it was easier and neater to do when the grout was a little firmer.  So we changed our technique from then on - grouting a few rows of tiles, leaving overnight, then scraping and cleaning the next day.  Given the strain on one's back, this was two days work, leaving the next patch of grout till the following day.  

Grouting about

Friday 9 May 2014

By Friday the tiles had been laid for a week, so we decided to go for it with the grout.  Dave mixed up a bucketful and armed with our modified rubber gloves we started under the stairs in a hidden corner of the pantry. 

 Yoghurt pot measurements: 3 fine sand, sieved; 1 part lime, sieved; dollop of PVA glue; enough water to make gloopy, spooned into rubber gloves fitted with a cut-off funnel end, and squeezed painstakingly into each crevice. 

 Turns out this job is back-breaking.  But what job isn't?

 To avoid going back over the grouted tiles we did an area, then wiped the excess and moved on to do another area.  After falling over each other too much, Dave went back to the external plastering and left me grovelling around with the grout.

Why won't the cat just drink out of the fresh water drinking bowl?  Maybe short of calcium?

Wonderful wildflowers

7-8 May 2014

Now we just had to wait, to give the lime mortar a chance to go off before we walked on it.  So Dave did more of the external wall plaster and I pottered around helping.  And took the time to look at some of the new flowers that have sprung up this year.

 Wild marigolds

 Not a clue - strange curly edges, but very pretty

 After extensive research, found out this is called Love in a Mist and it is the most amazing flower - or so we thought, until we saw the seed pods - even more amazing - they're huge, the size of very large grapes

And we are in the middle of exuberant cereals - these are either wheat or barley, with wild oats just visible behind.  This is on the path to our front door, we have to scythe our way in.

Experimental grout and a new door

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Having taken it easy, with a bit of boaty stuff to do, over Sunday and Monday, by Tuesday we were keen to try a bit of grouting.  Dave was holding firm to eco-principles and wanted to make the grout himself.  We had some fine sand, which we put through the kitchen sieve (sigh!) to make it even finer, then mixed with lime and a touch of PVA glue.  The fine sand is almost black in colour, so the grout was going to be grey.

Dave made a little mix measuring everything in yoghurt pots, just enough to do a few lines accessible from the doorway.  Our one remaining problem was how to apply the grout.  The internet was saying we shouldn't apply in the same way as on ceramic tiles, where you just wipe the grout over the tiles, instead we had to squeeze out lines using something like an icing bag.

In the UK you can buy Grout Bags for this.  In Greece you can't.  This was our first attempt to make one.  Rubber glove with cut off end of a funnel taped into the finger.  It was okay for a while, but then kept jamming.  We worked out there were little unsaturated lumps in the lime so it had to go through a sieve too. 

The homemade grout bag - and a handful of tiles experimented on.

Then Rowan called in unexpectedly, with our new door for the music room.  We had designed a more interesting shape than a square, and Rowan had also made this guitar cut-out blue glass panel.  He's going a way for a few weeks, so no more for a while.  Very nice to have this one though.  

Terrracotta tiles, hurrah!

Saturday 3 May 2014

Hangover notwithstanding, we were up early, ready for Neil at 9am, with the mixer mixing, and the tiles in their boxes stacked up raring to go.  Actually, Dave was all ready, and I was drifting around zombie-like trying to look helpful while not, in fact, doing anything.

Neil was laying tiles like there was no tomorrow, and we were onto the second mix in no time.  Then Dave got a call from his brother asking him to help move a boat, and suddenly I was all on my own.  Not recommended with a hangover, loading buckets of sand into the mixer.  I kept getting distracted and forgetting how many I'd done.  Still, Neil kept a wicked pace going, so there were no options.  Eventually, I started to wonder what was keeping Dave, when I got a call - he was 'just having a beer with Pete ...'  I explained calmly and reasonably why this was not a good thing under the circumstances...!

No time for photos as the work progressed.  I only remembered the camera at the end of the day, after Neil had left.  Here's the finished job, only the grouting left to do.

Sweeping up

Saturday 2 May 2014

Last day of prep before Neil comes to lay the tiles, so I spent it sweeping and clearing up.  All done by 4pm.  Dave had done a morning on the outside wall, then gone to do boaty things, so I was left to my own devices - quick chance to lay out an approximation of the kitchen floor plan.

 From the outside door to the kitchen, looking across at the pantry - door aperture with micro-columns.

From the pantry looking towards the kitchen door, line to the left shows placement of kitchen sink and countertop, square to the right of the outside door will be the fridge, and the nearest rectangle is the space for the cooker.  Can't wait now, just want it to all be done ...

 Later that evening, Steamboat Rooster were playing at a friend's birthday party at a private villa across the valley from us.  Lovely party, but I forgot to be sensible, and fell victim to the demon drink ...

... not a good idea with a day of mixing lime mortar for tile adhesive coming up fast!

Me and Geordie Andy enjoying the moment.

Last pantry panels

Thursday 1st May 2014

Another full day of pantry wall-building. 

First off, I plastered up these four internal wall panels on the left,

then tackled the sections under and around the little window.  The plaster in these is straight onto the bales, and as it was going to be in the pantry, I didn't worry about the finish being set a few centimetres back from the wood frame.  In more public spaces, we're going to have to come up with a way of bringing the final surface closer to flush with the wood, like it is on internal walls.

Meanwhile, Dave started the third and final coat of external plaster on the bale walls - must be time this job was finished!